Microsoft announced this month that it will be discontinuing the Windows Subsystem for Android — the thing that makes it possible to run Android apps on Windows PCs — in a year's time. The feature wasn't used by many, but that isn't the fault of Windows users. Android apps were irrelevant on Windows because the implementation of them was fundamentally unintuitive. A feature that enables phone apps to run on a desktop operating system is the kind of thing only Apple can do well thanks to its unparalleled cross-platform integration.

That isn't just speculation, either. All the best Macs can run iOS apps straight out of the box, with hardly any extra work required. They appear in the native macOS App Store, directly in search results. While the Windows Subsystem for Android was a bona-fide failure, iOS apps on macOS are alive and well. Microsoft's idea wasn't bad, but its execution was.

A lack of support doomed Android apps on Windows

It was more like a bad workaround than a natural, first-party solution

Microsoft has a hard time doing anything because it depends on third-party companies and developers to make it happen. That's a consequence of doing business as a horizontally-integrated company, because Microsoft can't control the same things that Apple can. For example, Microsoft needed Google's support to make Android apps on Windows successful for two main reasons. The first is that the Google Play Store is far and away the most popular Android app marketplace, and having the Play Store on Windows would immediately increase usage of the Windows Subsystem for Android. But the more glaring reason is that Google's first-party apps — think Google Search, Drive, and Maps — aren't hosted anywhere else.

If there's been one constant in the tech industry over the last decade or two, it's that platforms unable to make use of Google services don't last long. Without support from Google, Microsoft had to create the Windows Subsystem for Android using the open-source version of Android. It also used the Amazon Appstore for the default app marketplace, which is bad for a number of reasons beyond not featuring Google apps. Sure, you could sideload apps using the Windows Subsystem for Android and the right APKs. The problem is that even for power users, using an emulator like Bluestacks is a much better and more accessible way to get Android apps on Windows. Essentially, the Windows Subsystem for Android was doomed from the start.

Running iOS apps on macOS is nearly flawless

They "just work," and casual users might stumble upon them in the App Store

Apple has an advantage that Microsoft doesn't: complete control of its platforms. It has been proven time and time again that Apple can leverage its user base of billions to basically force developers to abide by the company's will. Of course, it can't actually force developers to support its platforms. But only a handful of developers — like Epic Games — are willing to lose access to billions of users by going to war with Apple. As a result, when Apple decided to bring iPhone apps to the Mac, it simply didn't give app developers much of a choice.

Everyone probably knows by now that Apple ditched Intel for its own Apple Silicon chips on the Mac in 2020, and these are based on the same silicon that powers the iPhone and iPad. Basically, this enables Apple to let iOS and iPadOS apps run on macOS without any translation layer required. To go a step further, Apple automatically makes every single iOS and iPadOS app available in the macOS App Store for Apple Silicon Macs. There is a way for a developer to opt-out, but there is nothing manually required of a developer. If you want to make an app available on iOS or iPadOS, it will also be available on macOS by default. A few notable apps, like Instagram, have opted out. Generally speaking, most iOS and iPadOS apps are available on macOS, however.

This is the very reason iPhone apps are great on macOS. If you search for an app in the macOS App Store that doesn't have an official Mac app, iOS and iPadOS versions will pop up. You can download them like any other macOS app, and they run like their iOS and iPadOS apps in windowed form. The phrase is used a lot when talking about Apple features, but iPhone apps "just work" on Mac. That's why they're still here and the Windows Subsystem for Android is going away.

Why you should use iOS apps on macOS

For one, iPhone apps are cheaper than Mac apps on average

There are a handful of very good reasons to use iPhone apps on your Mac, including the obvious one: not every iOS app has a native macOS app. For example, I use LumaFusion for video editing because it has just the right amount of features for my needs, and it's subscription-free. Instead of going out and buying Final Cut Pro X or subscribing to Adobe Premier Pro, the same LumaFusion app is available on macOS that I initially bought for iOS and iPadOS. LumaFusion doesn't have a Mac app at all, and if it did, I'd have to buy it separately. Instead, the iPad app for LumaFusion runs on Apple Silicon Macs automatically without any hiccups.

Whether you like Apple's business practices or hate them, the company's tight-knit ecosystem allows it to offer features that no one else can. Microsoft had a good idea with the Windows Subsystem for Android that didn't pan out because it couldn't make a partnership with Google. Apple, on the other hand, managed to do it all by itself.